Violent protest hits store at Wal-Mart South Africa unit - witness

JOHANNESBURG, Sept 29 (Reuters) - A violent protest broke out on Friday at a Johannesburg store run by Wal-Mart’s South African unit Massmart, according to a Thomson Reuters witness.

The store is part of Massmart’s Makro chain, whose employees have been on a wage strike for a week.

Marune Rossouw, a Thomson Reuters employee, said she was trapped inside the store with around 50 other people as protesting staff rampaged through the car park, throwing stones at cars.

“We’re trapped inside, in the bottles section, and the guys are outside toyi-toying (dancing),” she said by phone. “They’ve told us to move to the back of the store.”

A police spokesman could not immediately confirm the incident at the store, in a middle-class northern suburb of Johannesburg. A Massmart spokesman also could not immediately offer confirmation. (Reporting by TJ Strydom and Ed Cropley; Writing by Ed Stoddard; Editing by Tiisetso Motsoeneng)